


it hungers, it eats you whole

by MageOfCole



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Bad Ending, Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Character Death, Cliffhangers, Dark, Dark Anakin Skywalker, Dark Magic, Horror, Loss of Limbs, M/M, Murder, Necrophilia(?), Non-Consensual Body Modification, Obsession, POV Outsider, Reanimated Dead Bodies, Reanimation, Sith Anakin Skywalker, Sith Magic & Rituals (Star Wars), Sith Sorcery, Space zombies, Suitless Darth Vader, The Dark Side of the Force (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:47:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28229373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageOfCole/pseuds/MageOfCole
Summary: Fives remembers, as well as any trooper of the 501st, the sight of his brother’s bloody body in their General’s arms. He remembers the blood and the viscera and the screaming as the world twisted and warped into something so far out of his control that he doesn't know what's real any more. Rex is dead, and General Skywalker won't accept it, can't cope.There's something on the ship now, something cold and hungry that steals the warmth from their souls and makes them fear the dark, and he doesn't think it will ever be satisfied.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 24
Kudos: 69





	it hungers, it eats you whole

**Author's Note:**

  * For [padawantam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/padawantam/gifts).



> Happy Birthday to Tam, who dropped a killer idea into the group chat and let me go ham

“Whatever that is, it’s _not_ Rex.” Fives’ voice is hushed, shaky and quivering, as he watches the thing in his ori’vod’s armour trail behind General Skywalker like a trained Akku pup, eyes empty of anything but a blind devotion to the Jedi in front of it. He doesn’t dare raise his voice any higher than a whisper, not wanting to draw the attention of the General or the empty thing that used to be his Captain.

Their yellow eyes send chills down his spine, their mere presence makes him feel cold. There’s a hunger about them, one that can never be sated and gnaws at everything around them, making the world seem dull and lifeless, and it makes every animal instinct in him scream from the _wrongness_ even as the cold freezes him in place and hollows out his bones. He feels like he’ll never be warm again when they’re around, like all the energy and heat is being sucked out of him until it leaves only a husk in his place. A husk like Rex had become.

Fives remembers, as well as any trooper of the 501st, the sight of his brother’s bloody body in their General’s arms. He’s haunted by the sight of crimson blood and viscera spilling out into the sands around them and Rex’s empty _empty_ eyes and blood stained lips pulled into a defensive snarl. He had gone down protecting the General’s back, the vibrosword of a commando droid slicing through his armour like warm butter, and General Skywalker’s ripping screams still tear at his chest and steal the breath from his lungs because it meant that Rex was _dead_ . He remembers the vortex of pure power that had exploded out from their Jedi, it had _disintegrated_ the army of droids that had separated the bulk of Torrent Company from their commanding officers, and had warped and shredded the ground under their feet, turning the sand to dangerously sharp shards of red-stained glass.

There had been a bloody handprint smeared across General Skywalker’s face when he’d stood, unnaturally smooth even with Rex’s heavy body in his arms, his eyes glowing a sickly yellow in the shadows of his face. He had snapped Coric’s neck with his _mind_ when the CMO hadn’t been able to help Rex and had choked Kix until he was unconscious and Jesse had had to drag him to safety, even after Coric had told their General that there was nothing any of them could do for Rex, but he had tried anyways, because no one had wanted to accept that their Captain was dead so soon after Commander Tano had left them. General Skywalker had used the Force to throw them all out of the way when they’d tried to stop him, and he’d taken Rex’s body from the biobed it was laid out on. No one had dared to approach him, no one had dared to try and find him, not after Ridge had come stumbling back from his self-imposed mission to speak to the General missing an arm and dragging Vaughn’s body with him. The only reason why the Sergeant hadn’t bled out was because of the cauterized stump that ended above where his elbow used to be.

A lightsaber wound.

Then the shinies started going missing, their bodies found strewn about the halls like broken toys with no sign of wounds that could have caused their deaths. Some of them were found with chunks of flesh or entire limbs missing, some even _disemboweled_ , like they had been _eaten_. The men were scared, and Fives didn’t blame them.

Stuck in dead space, they couldn’t call for help, couldn’t update anyone on their situation or the bodies that were steadily piling up. The _Resolute_ ’s power was low to conserve energy the longer they floated without orders or leadership, the halls dark and lit only by red emergency lights, and it didn’t help with the smothering atmosphere of fear that had fallen over the troopers. Moral was lower than it had ever been, even during campaigns like Umbara. With Rex dead and General Skywalker AWOL with his body, and _something_ roaming the halls and killing men, Fives had tried to keep everyone together, to keep spirits up, but everything had only gotten worse.

General Skywalker had come out of his isolation, and the thing wearing Rex’s body had followed, wearing clean, undamaged armour like nothing had happened, but Fives had known immediately that something was wrong. The thing’s skin is greyed out with death, lips blue from the lack of oxygen even as it breathes, and veins under paper-thin skin growing darker as time continues to pass. The premature lines of stress that had been etched into Rex’s skin were gone, replaced with an artificially smooth and passive expression that his brother never would have worn. It doesn’t eat, it doesn’t sleep, and it doesn’t speak, all it does is follow General Skywalker like a droid, uncaring of the world around it and without a spark of life in its eyes. The smell that clings to it is stomach-churning; the stink of a rotting body that couldn’t be smothered had sunk into every crevice on the ship, and yet General Skywalker doesn’t seem to notice. Doesn’t seem to care that it’s _wrong_. He just continues to openly touch and kiss the thing in a perverted parody of how he used to treat Rex in the secrecy of their bunk, uncaring of the terrified troopers around him.

Troopers had stopped going missing, for now, but still no one dares to speak too loud, to draw attention to themselves, in fear that it would break the tense atmosphere of the star destroyed and make General Skywalker snap again. No one wants the Jedi to look at him with his yellow eyes, or risk breaking whatever spell that keeps the thing wearing their brother’s face enthralled with the General. They fear what it would do to them.

Next to him, Tup shakes with mute fear as General Skywalker and the thing sweep past them and onto the bridge, bringing with them an icy chill and the sickening smell of rot, and for a moment, Fives can swear he can see ice crystals on his breath and frost crawling over his armour as his energy suddenly flags. He needs to lock his knees to stop himself from collapsing completely.

They watch, silent and still, as General Skywalker steps up to the holotable, and the Jedi turns to the thing wearing Rex’s face and body like an ill-fitting suit of armour.

“I’ll fix this, my warrior.” General Skywalker promises, expression intense in the way that has fear crawling up Fives’ chest. He reaches forward, gripping the back of the thing’s neck, and drawing it closer. It stays passive and blank as the Jedi presses their lips together with eerie tenderness, cradling the thing’s face like it's something precious, and Fives mentally rails against the sight.

Rex would have never been comfortable with this public display of affection, and seeing General Skywalker, the man his brother had fallen in love with despite the problems their relationship faced, disregard this to kiss his brother’s rotting body in an insult against the dead Captain. Fives wishes desperately to step forward, to put a bolt in the thing’s head and finally give Rex _peace_ , but Tup’s shaking hand on his belt stops him and pulls him back into line and the troopers around him shake their heads frantically.

They’re all afraid. Afraid of their General, of the thing that used to be their Captain, and staying unnoticed means staying safe.

“I’ll _fix_ this.” Skywalker repeats, voice reverently hushed. “I’ll bring you back, _I promise, Rex_.” His yellow eyes are manic-bright, staring into the thing’s empty face and tracing his thumb under its matching sickly eyes, so far from Rex’s warm brown that it makes Fives shy back in animal fear. “We’ll be together again, a _family_ \- like you always dreamed of.” He kisses the thing again, fast and full of passion, before he turns away, stepping up to the holotable and dropping to his knees in a grovelling bow as a call connects, and a figure in heavy robes appears, a deep hood pulled over their face. “Master.” Skywalker greets, and Fives shares a nervous, fearful, look with a pale-faced Tup as the figure smiles, slow and pleased.

“Rise, Darth Vader.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into horror writing, so please let me know what you think! :D


End file.
